In the run-up to this most recent installment of the Spartan and Wolverine gridiron rivalry, our friends from Ann Arbor felt the need to broadcast their entitled sense of superiority over MSU.

Ignoring the four-game loss streak that followed Hart’s remarks, Michigan has remained unfazed by its failures and stubbornly committed to an imaginary big brother status.

Although going 1-3 against MSU during his illustrious career as Michigan’s “quarterback,” former Wolverine Denard “Shoelace” Robinson called MSU his little brother during a Big Ten Network interview during which he also listed the Spartans as U-M’s third-most important rival.

Current Michigan running back Fitz Toussaint echoed Hart’s sentiments last week when he referred to the Spartans as “little brother” looking to “beat up big brother.” The U-M Central Student Government even got in on the act when it decided to pass a resolution before Saturday’s football game that recognized ASMSU as the “Little Brother Student Government.”

This is not to mention the thousands of dollars U-M officials spent to have the words “GO BLUE” graffitied above Spartan Stadium prior to a nonconference game against Youngstown State.

All this talk and false bravado seems rather desperate and juvenile.

Yet, let’s be honest, it is probably impossible for Wolverine players, supporters and students to rid themselves of their “big brother” mentality, regardless of what happens on the football field.

Self-indulgence and delusional superiority is fundamental aspect of the Wolverine DNA. The “leaders and the best” from Ann Arbor are indoctrinated daily with an almost pathological sense of entitlement derived from merely being associated with U-M. Just wearing maize and blue is enough to elevate you above the commoners beneath mighty Michigan.

A very wise man once prophetically warned that “pride comes before the fall.”

That same man has guided Michigan State football to five victories against U-M in the last six years and has built the most successful football program in the state of Michigan. Period.

U-M players and fans still might obsess about a fantasized brotherly relationship between the two schools, however, this unwarranted self-absorption only works to the advantage of the Spartans. Michigan indeed has fallen, yet, for some strange reason, they remain overconfident, cocky and pretentious. I say, let them.

In the midst of all the off-the-field Wolverine taunts and provocations directed at MSU, head football coach Mark Dantonio and the Spartans have decided to let their game do all the talking by physically dominating U-M year after year.

Saturday was a clear reflection of the opposite directions these programs are heading. As long as the Wolverines remain unwilling to accept Michigan State as a competent adversary worthy of respect, they can expect more results like Saturday’s.

I cannot wait to see what they will come up with next year. Until then, the Spartans quietly will go back to work.

Alex Dardas is an international relations junior. Reach him at dardasal@msu.edu.